'A joyful Christmas is not a consumerist Christmas'

My best Christmas Day celebration was a present-less gathering in Malawi.

The worship was full of percussion, al fresco, around a log fire, and everyone shared in the gift of Jesus.

According to a PwC forecast, the average adult in the UK spent £461 on Christmas; in the US, it was $1552. ^[1] That’s a lot of socks, perfumes and novelty gifts from Selfridges.

What should Christians do about Christmas and January Sales? Should they call on parliament to revisit 1644, when a Puritan government banned Christmas (as some Christian churches continue to practise) and made Christmas Day a day of fasting and prayer, or should today’s followers of Jesus simply go with the jingle-jive festive flow?

Can joy provide the church with that key hermeneutical lens through which all Christmas celebrations are authenticated?

The economics of joy

A joyful Christmas is not a consumerist Christmas. They are as incompatible as the lives of the First and Second Adams (1 Cor. 15v45-47).

Economics highlights the disparity. The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility states: "As a consumer consumes more units of a good, the additional satisfaction (utility) gained from each extra unit decreases, other things remaining the same."

What this means is:

• First Mars Bar: “Delicious!”
• Second Mars Bar: “It was moreish, but less so now...”
• Third Mars Bar: “Why did I eat a third Mars Bar?”
• Fourth Mars Bar: “I feel sick.”

The utility (satisfaction/happiness) I receive from each new chocolate bar decreases with unit-by-unit increments.

All is not lost, though, at this utility nadir. A cushy New Year pay rise piques consumer curiosity onto higher-end consumption paradigms: Hotel Chocolat instead of Cadbury, Tommy Hilfiger jeans instead of Levi’s. Extra cash parachutes spenders onto more expensive "consumption curves" in search of greater satisfaction.

The story is told of a very rich man who found visiting his local high street utterly depressed. His ability to buy everything(!) suspended the poor fellow "mid-jump" because he had reached the end of possible curves.

The consumerist mantra of The Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility is not God’s calling for Western Christians.

Joy indefinable

Christian joy is not like utility consumption. Jesus sets a new law for redeemed human behaviour and appetites that might be called The Law of Joy Utilisation. Matthew 13v12 outlines its functionality: “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

Jesus’ law for "Second Adam" people operates something like this:

• First piece of joy: “That's like nothing else I’ve tasted, I want more.”
• Second piece of joy: “Gosh, that’s even better. I want more.”
• Third piece of joy: “I thought the second piece was great, but this is something else, I want more.”
• Fourth piece of joy – “Wow, I’m about to jump onto a new curve of joy in the Lord. I want more!”

The more joy we have, the more joy we want! Jesus’ Law of Joy Utilisation bucks the trend of marginal utility: while marginal utility follows a downward trajectory, The Law of Joy Utilisation traces an ascending graphic:

Of course, Jesus’ law carries a spiritual health warning: the less joy a Christian has (His teaching encompasses missional responsibility, depth of relationship and personal experience/joy), the less hunger and thirst for joy a believer exhibits in real terms beyond "churchy personas."

How hungry are you for God this Christmas/New Year season? It does not make rational, economic or spiritual sense for Christians to invest in the acquisition of more material things at the expense of joy.

Incarnational blues?

The characters of the nativity experience temporary basic living conditions: Mary, Joseph and Jesus in a cellar or stable before their flight to Egypt; the Magi travelling light on sandy roads across deserts, and the shepherds rough sleeping in exposed fields. The tradesman (Joseph), the wealthy intellectuals (Magi) and the farmers (shepherds) all return home, eventually, to a new normal: Jesus dwelling in their lives and homes.

Living by Jesus’ Law of Joy Utilisation in a society that is subservient to the Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility does not necessitate a puritanical approach to Christmas. It requires a lifestyle of daily moderation and radical generosity, driven by a growing appetite for more of that indefinable joy in Jesus.

If Christians put limits on their Christmas and January sales spending, without becoming Scrooge or The Grinch, then a proverbial illuminating star will sit high above their homes in the understanding of their neighbours. It will say: “Joy, not avarice, reigns here”.

1. Festive spending forecast to reach £24.6bn this year – PwC UK